BY: ORANGECHAIR
During the Fall, Winter and Spring television seasons, NBC fills its Thursday night line up with four of its comedy television shows. Every week there was an evening of comedic television for comedy fans to look forward too, leaving a hole when NBC comedy night ended in the spring. Last night, Thursday June 28th, FX attempted to fill that hole with their own comedy night by premiering two new comedy shows and returning two shows for their second and third season.
• 8:00 Anger Management: I was not overly excited for Charlie Sheen’s return to television and I was right not to get my hopes up. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Two and a Half Men when Charlie Sheen was on it, I found it to be corny and crude. Anger Management is a very similar show. Sheen stars as psychologist, which allows the writers to introduce a cast of crazy characters, that is divorced and has a no nonsense daughter. Beyond that, Sheen’s character seemed to be taken directly from Two and a Half Men. He is a womanizer, a chauvinist and is obsessed with sex. I believe the show tried to make him less of a pig by giving him a family but ultimately, we are watching the same man make the same jokes in the same situations.
• 9:00 Wilfred: The Wilfred season premiere aired last week and last night was the second season’s second episode. I love this show. I think it’s hilarious and brilliant and the first two episodes this season have proven that this show is not afraid to be different. The season premiere picked up where the season 1 finale left off, Elijah Wood attempting to determine if he is crazy. Though there weren’t many laughs last week, I appreciate what direction the show took for the episode. This week however, Wilfred and Ryan were reunited and hilarity ensued. With his mind poisoned by Drew (Chris Klein), Jenna’s boyfriend, Wilfred no longer wants to be best friends with the selfish Ryan. As Ryan spends the episode trying to get back into Wilfred’s good graces, the two slowly restart their relationship. The end shot of the show, with Wilfred and Ryan smoking pot and making jokes, suggests that next week’s episode will return to the norm the show established in their first season. I liked to see a comedy show go out on a limb and do something different with their story and their characters. Wilfred has been strong so far this season and I look forward to the rest of Season 2.
• 9:30 Louie: It took me a while to get into this show but now that I have given it a real shot, I believe it may be the funniest comedy on television. Season 3 started with a hilariously awkward bang. The mind of Louie C.K. is so brilliant it is almost difficult to believe. With his show and his standup, Louie has been able to cultivate a style of comedy that is unique which is rare for a new show. Most new shows now seem to emulate or model themselves off of a previous show but Louie is unique. If you don’t like or understand sarcasm, I cannot stress enough that this show is not for you. Louie uses sarcasm without shame or limits throughout his career, creating an endless number of awkwardly hilarious scenes. The sarcasm combined with a barrage of ever changing facial expressions mix together to create a half an hour of brilliant television. My only complaint about the season premiere is that there weren’t enough cut scenes to Louie’s standup comedy. In previous seasons, they would cut to a stand up routine at least twice an episode but in the premiere, they only had one stand up scene. Other than that I have no complaints, it was perfect.
• 10:00 Brand X: I was really excited for Russell Brand’s new late night show and ended up being horribly disappointed. I have seen Brands standup comedy before and thought it was hilarious so I just assumed that the comedy would transfer to his late night show. What I got was a number of incoherent rants and disjointed jokes that barely even got me to crack a smile. I don’t know if maybe I didn’t understand the topics Brand was talking about or if I’m just completely ignorant but the show did not work for me. I did expect the show to be amazing but it let me down, it let me down hard. I found Brand X to be the weakest comedy of the evening and don’t even know if I’m going to give it a second chance.